2020 Hurricane Sally
Ponce De Leon, Florida
Rick Froggatt and I are NAUI SCUBA instructors teaching through Special Operations Support - Emergency Response in Tennessee.
16 September 2020, Rick and I decided we’d proceed with our planned dive & camping trip to Vortex Springs. Hurricane Sally was projected to come a shore in Gulf Shores, AL and head north-east towards Memphis, TN. Our thought was we would be in Florida east of the storm with no problems for diving.
Sally had other plans! The hurricane did land in Gulf Shores, AL, but instead of heading towards Memphis took more of easterly turn. As we approached Vortex we were already seeing the dark rotating clouds and driving through horizontal torrential rain.
At Vortex and the campsite set, by the time we decided to evacuate, the sheriff’s officer let us know all roads out were completely out. So we had no choice, but to sit it out in the rv. The evening of the 16th we took the first set of photos you’ll see below. With the water rising all we could do is pray. We eventually decided we could do nothing about it and being tired decided to turn in for the night. No pictures, but as we did I took one last look out the front door of the rv to find the water level was between the 2nd and 3rd steps. We were either going to flood or a miracle would dry us out?
At Vortex, at times pine cones will drop on the top of your rv, camper, tent, etc. Because of how far they fall, it can sound like large tree limbs are ready to come down. One camper decided to move his rv in the middle of the night thinking just that. Little did he know the dirt road through the campground was now a raging river which had washed out major parts of the road. You’ll see his truck and rv in one of the holes as they dropped into it in the flood.
On the morning of the 17th, we awoke and were surprised at how quickly the flood water had gone back down instead of continuing up into the floor of the rv. Our dive trip turned from PSD training to Rescue training. We spend the rest of the time checking on everyone and then helping secure buildings to recover what we could from inside.
2020 September 16 - Hurricane Sally hits Vortex Springs
